Odisha curtails summer vacation in schools to 10 days

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Saturday announced curtailment of summer vacation in schools from 50 days to only 10 days. The decision was taken keeping in view the interest of students and help them to catch up with their studies as schools were closed due to COVID-19. "The summer vacation will be curtailed and allowed for a brief period from June 6 to June 16, 2022,” a notification issued by the School and Mass Education department said.

The summer vacation in schools which used to be for 50 days will now be for 10 days, an official said, adding that the teaching hours will be from 6 am to 9 am from May 1 to June 5, keeping in view the summer heat. Schools across the state remained closed due to COVID induced lockdown in the state for the last two years.

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The students had been given promotion to the next class without appearing at examinations. Though the schools were holding online classes, they could hardly reach all students, the rural school students could not take benefit. Considering these factors, the government has drawn up a strategy to help the students, who missed out on studies in previous years, to catch up with previous years’ courses, sources said.

The notification also said that the class promotion for the students from Class 1 to 8 will be made by April 20. New Admission/Re-admission for Class 1 to 9 may be done from April 20 to April 30. As per the New Assessment Policy introduced by Board of Secondary Education, Odisha, Class 9 students will have to appear in Summative Assessment-II Examination.

However, the conduct of SA-II and declaration of result for students of Class 9 and promotion to Class 10 must be completed by May 10, the notification said. Stating that the morning classes will continue until further orders, it said cooked MDM (mid-day meal) will be supplied to the eligible beneficiaries.